Part 2 – Banking/Cash Apps
Digital banking and cash sharing apps are increasing in popularity for sending and receiving money instantly. As many as 29% of North American transactions originate from a digital wallet with an estimated 64 million mobile payment users in the US. With these apps, users simply connect their credit cards or, more often, their bank accounts directly to send or receive money from other users within the same app. Once you download the app, you choose a unique username. Users can also be found using the phone number or email address tied to their account.
One of the biggest conveniences and risks with apps like these is the ability to pull money directly out of a bank account via ACH transaction. These apps assume that if you have the login credentials for the app, your transaction is authorized and therefore have limited protections (unlike a credit card transaction that can be disputed). There are more processes in place for disputes these days, but there is no guarantee you can get your money back if a bad actor gets into your app and transfers money.
At Pindrop, we are proud to be a part of the Atlanta community where we are headquartered. Unfortunately, one of our fellow Atlantans became a victim of hackers just last year. A marriage and family therapist, who worked hard for years to build a solid financial foundation, lost $15,000. She awoke one morning to incessant phone calls and learned the next day that her phone was spoofed. Hackers were able to empty her bank account using the big banks’ own cash-sharing app Zelle.
Voice Biometric Authentication
Instead of relying on usernames and passwords, or even multi-factor authentication that uses one-time passcodes (OTPs) sent via SMS—ineffective in the case of a spoofed phone number like the Atlanta example shared above—there are more secure alternatives that banks should be investigating. Voice biometric authentication, for example, can allow customers to utter just a few syllables and have their identity verified, as speaker recognition systems offer more accurate authentication in less time.
When it comes to a Speaker Recognition API, the first step in leveraging voice biometrics is to have the user enroll their voice for future authentication. Pindrop’s API endpoints perform user voice enrollment by consuming an audio sample and creating a voice profile against a user identifier, without ever storing audio or personally identifiable information (PII). This makes voice authentication ideal for secure platforms that benefit from the element of privacy. When the user needs to authenticate, whether it’s for a secure transaction or a locked account, they simply need to verify their voice through a live audio sample that gets compared to the original enrollment. The process is fast, seamless, and more secure than OTPs. With Pindrop’s technology, that audio sample can be confirmed with impressive accuracy and even be identified as fake or recorded.
Take a hard look at your customer’s authentication experience. You can improve that experience and your bottom line by implementing a secure voice authentication.
Pindrop has one platform to service voice interactions for organizations – regardless of if those interactions are prompted on a mobile device to a call center or through a smart speaker. If you would like to identify voices regardless of where they are coming from through ”voice single-sign on”, Pindrop can help. Contact us.
